


They End up at Denny's

by Mimzilla



Category: Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU, Other, This got hella sappy at the end but oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2013-11-26
Packaged: 2018-01-02 17:10:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimzilla/pseuds/Mimzilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Komatsu and his four boyfriends, at the end of a night out, end up at Denny's somehow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They End up at Denny's

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a post on Tumblr about different kinds of AUs and one of them was along the lines of “end-up-at-Denny’s AU”, which spoke to me on a gourmet level. So here we are.

Somehow, they end up at Denny’s.

Considering how much they all love to eat, going to a restaurant at 2 am isn’t the surprising part. Even being awake at 2 am isn’t surprising; they’ve been out later, and will be again. But they’ve never been to Denny’s before, because they always had other things to do, other places to be. Even wandering the streets until they find a night club and drag Coco inside and onto the dance floor is better than ending up at Denny’s (certainly a lot funnier). Going to run-down theaters to see movies that nobody likes is better than ending up at Denny’s. Hell, staying in the dorm would be better than Denny’s, and would involve more alcohol. But here they are.

Zebra takes up almost an entire side of the booth, so Komatsu sits next to him. Sani is to their left, and perpendicular to him are Toriko and Coco. It’s getting difficult to keep his eyes open, so Komatsu keeps taking little sips of his decaf coffee. It won’t actually wake him up, but his brain might be fooled into thinking it will for a little while. He’s drunk enough of it to have earned a little placebo effect, he thinks. For now, it’s hot enough to help him focus on observing his boyfriends.

Sani’s hair has half-fallen out of its knot and is slumping over to the side. It speaks to how wiped out he is that he hasn’t fixed it yet, though he’ll probably notice soon by the way he’s starting to get twitchy. He’s the only one with a caffeinated drink, apart from Coco’s tea which is actually much more strongly caffeinated than coffee but Coco has a ridiculous caffeine tolerance so it doesn’t matter. Sani has steadfastly refused to eat anything, citing the “disgustin’ grease everywhere”. Komatsu can’t blame him.

Zebra might be even sleepier than Komatsu is, by they way he’s occasionally jerking his head up and then slowly letting it fall down to his chest again. He’s held on to his permanent scowl, but Komatsu knows him well enough by now that he can see the subtle difference between “I don’t give a shit” and “I’m too tired to give a shit”. He ate the food they ordered for Sani, too. Guy has a stomach like a bottomless pit.

Coco is always quiet, and appears to possess the ability to fall asleep or wake up whenever he wants, with no ill effects. Komatsu is wildly jealous, and secretly attributes it to caffeine-absorbing glands that Coco evolved via drinking exorbitant amounts of tea in their early years. As such, Coco is probably the person best-off at the table. It’s lucky he’s not the type to rub it in, because Zebra’s grumpy when he’s tired and a fight might break out.

Toriko has been staring at the clock for ten minutes.

"What is it?" Komatsu asks quietly, leaning forward to catch Toriko’s attention.

Toriko blinks, refocuses on him, then grins and scratches his stubble. “My paper was due two hours ago.”

Coco smiles and shakes his head slightly, and Sani groans. “Don’t act like y’care at all. That friggin professor’ll let you off, just like last time.”

"And the time before that," Toriko agrees. He stabs a potato cube with his fork and eats it happily. "I feel kind of bad always turning stuff in late, though."

"If you actually worked on your assignments instead of going to the garage all the time, you wouldn’t run into this problem," Coco notes. "Your TAs would be the happier for it."

It’s good that he has the foresight not to take a sip of his tea just then, because Toriko’s slap on the back definitely would have made him choke on it. “We aren’t all you, Coco!”

"Thank god," Zebra comments. Coco tilts an eyebrow but says nothing in response to the obvious bait. Zebra huffs a little and looks away, crossing his arms. He really does get grumpy after 1 am.

Speaking of which, Komatsu blinks and turns to Coco. “Hey, didn’t you say something about this place when we went out? One of your predictions?”

Coco nods a little. Sani groans melodramatically, and Toriko laughs. “Oh yeah! It was, like, there was a 60 percent chance we’d come to Denny’s. Looks like you weren’t wrong.” He pauses and runs a hand through his hair, messing it up (though not as much as Sani’s). “It was sort of more like we ended up here somehow, though.”

Sani groans and lets his head fall onto the table. “I really wish you would stop with all this psychic garbage,” he mumbles angrily into the cheap plastic.

"It’s not psychic, it’s just intuition and logic," Coco corrects him patiently. "And yes, I did feel that we would come to Denny’s today, for one reason or another—"

"Wait," Sani says suddenly, jerking up to stare at him. "That. What you just said."

Coco blinks. “What?”

Sani turns to Zebra, surprisingly enough, and demands, “We came here after midnight, right?” Zebra grunts in affirmation, and Sani slams a hand on the table triumphantly. Komatsu jumps, shocked by the sudden energy Sani’s produced from nowhere.

"You said we’d end up at Denny’s ‘today’," Sani crows, "but you said that yest’rday. We didn’t arrive until after midnight!”

"That is such a technicality—” Coco protests.

Sani laughs and wags his finger. “Nope! Can’t deny the facts.” He waves the waiter over and points to an arbitrary dish on the menu. “We’re getting more food. Today is the day we commemorate the time Coco predicted something wrong.”

The waiter doesn’t even ask, just goes back into the kitchen. Sani sits back in the booth, radiating smugness. Komatsu can’t help but laugh a little at the absurdity of the situation, especially considering that he’s never seen Coco look so absolutely and completely done with Sani. He’s not even trying to maintain his poker face, just glaring in complete exasperation. Toriko, on the other hand, looks rather gleeful, and Zebra’s cracked a non-threatening smile.

There’s a warmth spreading inside Komatsu which has nothing to do with second-rate decaf coffee.

What Sani ordered turns out to be pancakes, which they all share. Sani even manages not to complain about how the syrup will affect his skin, though he does mention repeatedly how much beauty sleep he’s missing. Zebra eats his share in one bite, which Toriko takes as a challenge and prompts him to steal half of Komatsu’s portion. Komatsu doesn’t mind—he’s plenty full, and can barely even finish the half he’s left. Coco has gone back to his tea in rather prim silence until the eating competition begins, at which point he suddenly declares that there’s a 70 percent chance that Zebra will win. Sani scowls terribly when Zebra does, in fact, win.

They eventually leave Denny’s, splitting the check five ways, and get back to the dorm at around 3. Tomorrow—later today—is Saturday, and they’ll see each other again soon enough; still, as they each split off to their respective rooms, everybody kisses everybody else (which takes a while and requires a lot of bending down or standing on tiptoes when Komatsu’s involved). Tomorrow will come quickly, and not long after that Komatsu will go to school to become a chef, and Coco will probably go to medical school, and Sani to study fashion, and the two others are competing to see who can get a degree in engineering first. They have their paths to walk, and sometimes they don’t intersect, but other times…

Other times, they end up together at Denny’s at 2 am.


End file.
